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From the category archives: Opinions

JOHN CONNELLY

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 5, 2012

Prayer has always held a deep fascination for me. It is a subject that is limitless. What an amazing thing to actually be in contact with God. The God who created and sustains all things. The God who knows us, loves us and calls us by name.

What would happen if we all dedicated our lives to really learning to pray? What would happen if we created authentic schools of prayer for our young people, families and churches?

MARK PICKUP

My wife, LaRee, and I were in Saskatchewan to speak at a retreat of Christian students in medical school. The retreat dealt with the subject of suffering.

We spoke to the students about our sorrows and grief that have accompanied our 28 years living with chronic, degenerative multiple sclerosis. We shared insights about suffering from our Christian perspectives. I spoke about the terror of having an aggressive version of MS.

GORDON SELF

New Year's heralds all kinds of personal resolutions to improve our lives - spend quality time with family, get back into shape, pray more, give to charities, and so forth.

But we know the dismal track record of Jan. 1 resolutions if they remain a half-hearted, private wish. Thinking them through, writing them down and publicly acknowledging what I resolve to do with a trusted friend or family member helps deepen the level of commitment and make it real.

FR. AYODELE AYENI CsSP

About six years ago, academic wind blew me from Africa to North America: to be precise, to Ottawa. My quest for knowledge has continued with my pursuit of a PhD degree in theology at the Dominican University, where I am on the verge of graduation.

As a Catholic priest of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost Fathers or Spiritans), I now work as the administrator of Mary Help of Christians' Catholic Chinese Parish in Edmonton, pending the defence of my doctoral dissertation in theology.

Only 34 years ago the first "test tube baby" was born. Things have since come a long way. Scientists have developed preimplantation genetic diagnosis which, combined with the mapping of human genome, has set the stage for the possible creation of designer babies.

Those involved in the assisted reproduction industry say designing your own baby to be as smart as Aristotle and athletic enough to be a pro football quarterback is not technically possible. The vast majority also say they won't select embryos based on cosmetic traits, such as ensuring your baby is blond, blue-eyed and beautiful. What they want to do is to prevent diseases and health conditions that create suffering.

FR. RON ROLHEISER, omi

To live a chaste life is not easy, not just for celibates, but for everyone. Even when our actions are all in line, it is still hard to live with a chaste heart, a chaste attitude and chaste fantasies. Purity of heart and intention is difficult.

Why? Chastity is difficult because we are so incurably sexual in every pore of our being. That is not a bad thing. It's God's gift. Far from being something dirty and antithetical to our spiritual lives, sexuality is God's great gift, God's holy fire, inside us. The longing for consummation is a conscious or inchoate colouring underlying most every action in our lives.

KATHLEEN GIFFIN

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 29, 2012

One characteristic of this era is the overemphasis and reliance on our own perspective and ability to understand as the means by which we determine what is right and good. It comes, I think, from the natural tendency of the brain to order data, reach conclusions and make judgments based on those conclusions.

Yet if that normal means of understanding reality is not tempered by a humility which acknowledges the limitations in our ability to grasp the fullness of truth, we can end up seriously disoriented.

BOB MCKEON

Two months ago, Food Banks Canada published Hunger Count 2011 , an annual report on hunger and food use in Canada. Our community food banks serve as an "early warning" indicator of the serious problems our society is currently facing.

The total number of individuals assisted by food banks in Alberta was 58,735, up a whopping 75 per cent from three years ago.

Church leaders from across the denominational spectrum in the United States met for two days prior to the Jan. 18-25 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in what might be called an ecumenical summit meeting.

They met to look at whether the various ecumenical "instruments" such as the National Council of Churches and the new Christian Churches Together in the USA represent in their present configuration the most effective use of available resources for carrying forward the work of unity among Christians.

This year, as an Advent offering, I had the opportunity to do something completely different. I was invited to bring my guitar and join a small volunteer choir in singing Christmas carols with inmates.

So on a chilly morning a few days before Christmas, I met up with the other volunteers at the Edmonton Remand Centre. After a few brief instructions we tuned our guitars and followed the chaplains into the prison. I must admit that I really had no idea what to expect.